Judge Dena Coggins – Nominee to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Dena Coggins, who previously spent many years as an administrative law judge in California, has been nominated to fill a future vacancy on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.

Background

Dena Michaela Coggins received a B.S. from California State University, Sacramento in 2003 and a J.D. from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 2006. Coggins then joined Morrison & Foerster LLP and subsequently moved to Downey Brand LLP.

In 2013, Coggins became Deputy Legal Affairs Secretary to California Governor Jerry Brown. In 2015, Coggins became an Administrative Law Judge with the State of California, which she continued until 2021, except for a year spent at the California Victim Compensation Board. Since 2021, Coggins has served as a Superior Court Judge for the County of Sacramento, serving as presiding judge of the Juvenile Court.

History of the Seat

Coggins has been nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, to a seat vacated by the move to senior status of Judge Kimberly Mueller on September 17, 2024.

Legal Experience

Coggins started her legal career as an associate at Morrison and Foerster, where, among other others, she represented two Salvadorian men seeking asylum in the United States after being threatened by gangs in their home country. See Superior Court Judge Dena Coggins: Leveraging Diversity, Pro Bono Work to Serve Sacramento, MoForever Alumni News, Fall 2021.

Subsequently, Coggins worked for Governor Jerry Brown as Deputy Legal Affairs Secretary before becoming an Administrative Law Judge.

Jurisprudence

From 2015 to 2021, Coggins served as an Administrative Law Judge with the State of California. During her time as an ALJ, Coggins declined to dismiss an administrative due process hearing sought by the Elk Grove Unified School District in a dispute regarding educational services to a student deemed eligible for special educational services. See E.G. v. Elk Grove Unified School Dist., No. 2:16-cv-02412-TLN-KJN (E.D. Cal. July 31, 2019).

Since 2021, Coggins has served as a Superior Court Judge for the County of Sacramento, having been appointed to the position by Governor Gavin Newsom to replace Judge David Abbott. In this role, Coggins serves as a primary trial court judge for both criminal and civil cases. Currently, Coggins serves as presiding judge of the Juvenile Court.

Overall Assessment

While Coggins, in her early 40s, is still fairly young as a federal judicial nominee, she nonetheless brings experience with both civil and criminal litigation, as well as judicial experience to the bench.

101 Comments

    • Dequan's avatar

      The EDCA needs at least one, if not two more judges authorized. Therefore I’m very happy to see this nomination made so far in advanced of the chief judge senior status date. It’s why I was so upset they waited to submit Kirk Sherrif’s name to the senate until after de Alba was confirmed. Biden doesn’t have to wait.

      Speaking of intent to nominate, I hope Biden moves quickly to intent to nominate one of the recommendations for the Nancy Maldonado seat. We already have the list of recommendations so no reason to wait. Intent to nominate somebody & shortly after Maldonado is confirmed, send their name to the senate.

      Liked by 1 person

    • Zack's avatar

      There are only a couple of judicial emergencies in blue states (NJ and IL) and those will be resolved (expect for the ones in CA) within the next month.
      To go along with that besides circuit court nominees(hopefully), I expect in the next batch of nominations we’ll be seeing nominations for the various CA districts as well as a replacement for Maldonado’s seat and the other vacancy in the NDIL in short order.
      I think (unless a breakthrough occurs) that getting nominees to the rest of the red state vacancies won’t happen unless we get a second term and the blue slip is finally done away with.

      Liked by 1 person

  3. Joe's avatar

    Realistically, if we continue to get 5 nominees per batch, we could get nominees to fill all remaining blue state/circuit court vacancies by around the end of May (with corresponding SJC hearing being around the week of Juneteenth.

    Now, that’s making quite a bit of assumptions (no missed SJC dates, no small batches, etc.), but that is the best case scenario as of right now. It would also leave room for about 4 or 5 more hearing dates for any new vacancies, red state vacancies, or other nominations that come through.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Joe's avatar

    These are the remaining potential SJC dates for 2024

    1. March 6 (full)
    2. March 20 (full)
    3. April 10 or 17 – nominees needed by March 13 or 20
    4. May 1 or 8 – nominees needed by April 3 or 10
    5. May 15 or 22 – nominees needed by April 17 or 24

    June gets a bit tricky because it’s only a 3 week work period and Juneteenth falls on the last Wednesday. We have seen SJC willing to do Thursday hearings though. Best case scenario is:

    6. June 5 – nominees needed by May 8
    7. June 18 or 20 – nominees needed by May 14-16
    8. July 10 – nominees needed by June 12
    9. July 24 or 31 – nominees needed by June 26 or July 3

    After the august recess it gets a lot trickier. I would say some or all of September has a high likelihood of getting cancelled because of the elections. But I’ll put all the possible dates as of right now. Ideally, but this part of the schedule we are only trying to fill late opening vacancies.

    10. September 11 – nominees needed by August 14
    11. September 25 – nominees needed by August 28
    12. November 13 – nominees needed by October 16

    November 13 is probably the latest a nominee could get a hearing and still be confirmed this session. That would put them on track to be held over on 11/21 and voted out of committee on December 5. That would give the senate two weeks to confirm.

    There would be possible nominations hearings on December 4 and December 18, but those wouldn’t be likely to get floor votes until 2025, barring some serious maneuvering on the part of Schumer to keep the senate in session or have them come back the week after Christmas.

    Liked by 3 people

  6. keystone's avatar

    A few names to consider for the 2 Tennessee seats

    Melanie Murry – University Counsel at The University of Memphis.
    – Born c. 1975
    – Was promoted to University Counsel when Obama appointed Sheri Lipman to be a district judge.

    Ruby Shellaway – Vice Chancellor, General Counsel and University Secretary at Vanderbilt University
    – Born c 1979
    – Clerk to Judith Rogers and James Robertson.

    Mary Hamm – Lead Counsel, FedEx
    – Age ~mid 40’s-ish
    – Clerked for Joseph Hood
    – Prior to FedEx was am attorney at Burch, Porter, & Johnson. Has an interview where she talks about choosing that firm bc of its “history of social justice work”. This is the firm that rep’ed MLK Jr.
    – Has also done work for Memphis Area Legal Services

    Liked by 1 person

    • tsb1991's avatar

      My dumb self posted this in the previous thread about Bulsara, which I’ve done a couple of times (posting in a thread that’s been replaced by a new one where the active conversations are). Some Marshalls and Attorneys are listed, but I was hoping they’d get the last group listed as well since they will have had three weeks since their hearings.

      One more pro forma session tomorrow and then the Senate returns on Monday (I always pop in on those to see who was unfortunate enough to be in town that day and gavel the Senate in for like 30 seconds).

      Liked by 1 person

  8. Ryan J's avatar

    https://www.legalaffairsandtrials.com/p/white-supremacist-will-leave-jail

    “Carney, 64, plans to retire from the bench completely in May. He will not take senior status. His retirement is not listed on U.S. Senate’s website, but everyone in the courthouse has known about it for months, and his staff has been lining up new jobs.”

    The article also gives some info on who Carney is and some of the rulings he’s made. Carney strikes me as a judge who REALLY, REALLY hates the government. He struck down gun laws, he declared California’s death penalty unconstitutional, and he dismissed charges against criminal defendants because he was upset about not being allowed to hold in-person trials during COVID, and yesterday, he threw out the conviction of a white supremacist. Each time, the 9th circuit reversed him.

    As for his retirement, I think he wants out. He must be tired of being reversed by the 9th circuit. Nevertheless, Biden should play it safe and wait until after Carney has retired before naming a nominee.

    Liked by 4 people

  9. Mitch's avatar

    A prior Biden nominee for this court, Daniel Calabretta, was also a judge on Sacramento County Superior Court, and is a former Deputy Legal Affairs Secretary for the Governor.

    I’ll bet that Calabretta and Coggins know each other already.

    Liked by 1 person

  10. Zack's avatar

    @Dequan, I agree with you about Carney.
    He knew exactly what he was saying, he just felt with his lifetime tenure as a judge he could get away with it.
    He thought wrong as the blowback cost him the chief judge job and IMO is one of the main reasons he is leaving the bench soon.
    Good riddance to bad rubbish.

    Liked by 2 people

      • Dequan's avatar

        I know others have but I still haven’t ruled out Camille McMullin. She has been beaten out of a promotion twice in two years. Third time might be a charm for her, especially with TWO vacancies for the 6th.

        Again, with Gibbons effective date upon confirmation of her successor, Biden has to be careful with that pick. Unfortunately doing what I would like (Nominating two young liberals) is probably not smart with Gibbons able to rescind & hold out for 11 months. Somebody like McMullin who I was completely against for the seat that went to Andre Mathis, would be completely acceptable for one of these two vacancies.

        Like

    • keystone's avatar

      Funny, I stumbled upon here shortly after my last post.

      I think she has a lot of potential.

      – Appellate Chief is an important and high profile role.
      – She worked for a decade+ at Burch, Porter & Johnson which is a big left leaning TN firm. Haven’t seen any controversial cases in her history.
      – She’s been a law professor so she should be able to easily pass Kennedy’s test.
      – Deep Memphis roots. She was born and raised there and she and her husband are both very involved in Memphis community.
      – She’s in her mid to late 40’s so she’s not too young and she’s not too old.
      – She is a woman. Putting this on here bc all 3 of the TN seats were held by women and I do think it’s gonna be an issue if all of the seats flip to men. You just know that Blackburn would loooove to make a speech about how the Biden campaign is taking away women’s voices.
      – Little to no donations background (Please note, there is another Mary Morris in TN who has made a lot of donations but it isn’t her).
      – She was a Board member for the Community Legal Center and her hubby was the longtime president of Memphis Area Legal Services.
      – She was a clerk for Judge Gibbons as well as a GHW Bush judge.

      Bonus Points – Her husband was also a clerk for Judge Gibbons (twice!)…. and the dates for the clerkships line up so I think they may have actually met via the Gibbons clerkship (Maybe that would convince Grassley to vote yea). The positive press campaign practically writes itself.

      Liked by 1 person

  12. Jamie's avatar

    I looked up Sparkle Sooknanan, and she graduated from Brooklyn Law, which is not a top 100 law school. I’m surprised that she got the clerkships from Calabresi and Sotomayor. Most SCOTUS clerks that aren’t from the top schools still have graduated from really good schools.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. Jamie's avatar

    Wow Cormac Carney is just a monster. Releasing a white supremacist thug who tried to flee the country for no reason other than his own racist viewpoints. It doesn’t get worse than that.
    I’m surprised that Grey Davis appointed him to the CA bench, Carney must have hid his views well.

    Liked by 1 person

    • dawsont825's avatar

      Not even being appointed to the state judgeship is that bad, how the hell did Feinstein and Boxer (both former California senators) return blue slips for him?? I know that the early 2000’s were a different time in the senate and the judicial wars had not yet reached its boiling point yet. (The Gang of Eight). But it’s crazy to think that they both returned their blue slips AND voted to confirm a very unabashedly conservative judge to a federal judgeship; especially in the CDCA (one of the highest volume districts in the country). If they had confirmed him to the NDCA or something, it wouldn’t be so bad, but damn.

      Either both senators didn’t do their homework on his background and legal history, or they didn’t care and showed deference to former Pres. Bush (even as he was a part of *real* election day shenanigans)

      Liked by 1 person

  14. rob's avatar

    I’m not sure if we will get many nominees confirmed this week or next due to the government funding expiring next weekend and the following weekend.

    That could take two weeks if there is no agreement to speed up whatever deal is agreed.

    However once that’s agreed the senate should have no excuse to focus on confirming judges.

    Liked by 1 person

    • dawsont825's avatar

      I’m not sure if it’s just me, but why do I feel annoyed at Durbin for wasting precious committee time with hearings on gun manufacturers and credit card companies and whatnot? I am well aware that the SJC has jurisdiction over a wide range of industries and whatnot, but it feels like wasting time in comparison to the judicial confirmation conveyor belt-like system McConnell had in place when he was in power.

      Yes, I know that the Dems still believe in governance and legitimate oversight and that the GOP couldn’t care less if it isn’t helping them seize power, but can’t they schedule more nomination hearings to offset any non-nomination themed SJC meetings? Or at least keep the senate open on Fridays to hold confirmation votes once a week. goddamn.

      Like

    • Joe's avatar

      We will definitely get the two FL judges confirmed next week. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the other two get votes on Wednesday either. The remaining four district nominees on the floor are probably all party line votes.

      Ideally we’d get a cloture vote for Aframe on Friday, but I agree that they’ll likely move on to budget bills.

      Liked by 1 person

  16. Zack's avatar

    @Dequan
    The Gibbons scenario is going to play out like the Cabranes seat did.
    We’ll get a nominee but he or she is likely going to be older and more moderate then we want.
    Stinks but it’s the price you pay when the judge holds all the cards.
    Also a note on a judge taking inactive status.
    George W Judge Deborah Cook is back to hearing cases as a senior judge after going inactive for a time.
    It does mean that down the line if her health improves and she wants to that Judge Wilhelmina Wright could hear cases again.
    By and large though, when a judge goes inactive, they stay there.
    Finally, on Cormac Carney, pretty sure if they had known he was going to a racist jerk they would have kept him off the courts but the battle back then was more over the circuit courts, not district ones.
    He’ll be off the courts soon enough though and good riddance.

    Liked by 1 person

  17. Mitch's avatar

    In an indirectly related matter, new evidence showed up in the hearing to disqualify Fani Willis and Nathan Wade in their prosecution of Trump in Georgia. Trump’s lawyers produced cell phone records that prove Willis spent the night at Wade’s place at least two times in 2021. But Willis and Wade swore under oath that their affair didn’t begin until 2022, after she hired him as Special Prosecutor.

    It might be that Willis and Wade committed perjury. Judge McAfee is not going to be pleased, to put it mildly.
    What were they thinking?

    Liked by 1 person

    • shawnee68's avatar

      If you took the time to watch the testimony given by Willis and Wade you could only conclude that they dated for short period and moved on. It was poor judgement by both of them and nothing more.

      The attorneys’ for the people who tried to steal the Georgia election could not prove that Willis hired Wade to kick-back fees paid to him.

      In her testimony , Willis refused to let Wade pay for any trips she took with him or anything else of value. When Wade paid for flights he was promptly reimbursed .

      I don’t advise anyone go review the hearing unless you a lot time on your hands and nothing constructive to do.

      It was right wing conspiracy theories from attorneys’ representing the likes of Rudy Giuliani and affiliated election interference thugs.

      What a waste of time!

      Liked by 1 person

  20. Gavi's avatar

    @Rick
    “I don’t understand some of the weeks off this year. Like the off the 4th week in April after the Easter break…”

    The modern senate has always taken Pesach off. Easter and Pesach usually occur within a few days of each other so that’s usually a combined recess for the senate.
    This year (and every year with two Adars on the Hebrew calendar) Easter and Pesach don’t align, so the senate will take two separate recesses. Same as schools in NYC.
    Pesach recess isn’t the problem. It’s poor scheduling wen the senate is actually in session.

    Liked by 2 people

  21. CJ's avatar

    I still think we should be cautious about Mangi not having the numbers to be confirmed. We saw what happened to Gaston, Edelman, and Holland. But this time the scrutiny towards Mangi seems to be even more intense than the failed nominees. Schumer has to count his votes for Mangi, especially among Senators Sinema, Tester, Rosen, Casey, and Fetterman. If Biden and Schumer want to secure the seat on the 3rd CCA, then they need to count their votes soon, and if they don’t have enough votes, find a new nominee.

    Liked by 1 person

  22. Joe's avatar

    I have concerns about Mangi, but not sure it’s time to sound the alarm bells yet. He was only nominated in November and Aframe, Berner, and several other district nominees have around the same time have been confirmed yet either.

    In fact, with the WH having just nominated two judges from Arizona, now would be the ideal time for Schumer to lock down Sinemas vote…

    Liked by 2 people

  24. keystone's avatar

    100% agree with that it’s way too early to be wetting the bed over some of these folks.

    Regarding Sinema, she spent years organizing anti-war protests and events following 9-11. She faced accusations of being anti-American and pro-Taliban during her campaigns. Fighter pilot Martha McSally ran ads showing fliers from the events that had portrayed American soldiers as being evil skeletons. Fox News ran a whole news cycle about Sinema promoting events that “featured convicted terror lawyer”. I know she’s a wild card, but I could see her being sympathetic towards the attacks on Mangi.

    She’s also both an Atheist and LGBT, which are two groups who aren’t really big on people weaponizing religion, so I could see that also leaving a bad taste in her mouth.

    The issue with Gaston and Edelman is that the GOP was able to very succinctly create a soundbite as to why those judges were bad and the Dems were left in a position where they couldn’t easily counter without a ton of explanation. With Mangi, the Dems are being proactive and are pushing back with the, “the GOP is being Islamophobic”. That makes sense and is easy to understand.

    With Berner, the GOP hasn’t landed on a succinct attack on her. I’m most worried about Aframe bc the GOP has figured out their attack on him. It hasn’t taken yet bc everyone is so focused on Mangi, but Blackburn is def trying to make fetch happen on Aframe.

    Liked by 3 people

    • Mike S.'s avatar

      Good analysis. I agree they should move forward with votes for Mangi and Aframe as soon as possible, once they confirm they do in fact have the votes. Don’t let either nominee linger out there too long. Berner should be confirmed easily, and maybe with the support of Collins and Murkowski, much like Rikelman was.

      Not sure if this was posted elsewhere, but here is a good article on the Mangi nomination from Balls and Strikes:
      https://ballsandstrikes.org/nominations/adeel-mangi-gross-smear/

      I’m reading a book about how the Republicans blocked Obama from nominating Scalia’s successor, its called “Confirmation Bias” by Carl Hulse. Really makes me angry reading about how calculated McConnell was in blocking any potential appointment, and making sure to come out with a statement expressing that just hours after Scalia’s death. Republicans really are ruthless when it comes to the courts. Reminds me why it is so important to re-elect Biden and a Dem senate so we can keep confirming judges.

      Liked by 3 people

    • Jamie's avatar

      “With Mangi, the Dems are being proactive and are pushing back with the, “the GOP is being Islamophobic”. That makes sense and is easy to understand.”

      The problem is that the majority of the country is Islamophobic. That’s why these attacks work. If the Mangi confirmation hypothetically were put to a national referendum, I’m not sure it would get 50%.

      I actually expected Berner to be the most controversial of these nominees (because she’s basically everything the GOP hates). But now I wouldn’t be surprised to see her get 53 votes. It’s still shocking to me that not one GOP senator on the committee asked her anything on her Planned Parenthood work.

      Liked by 2 people

  26. Jamie's avatar

    Regarding Cormac Carney getting blue slips from Feinstein/Boxer, Bush’s people in CA put a committee together along with Feinstein/Boxer appointees. Carney would have been recommended by that committee and was tolerable enough to the Dem senators, especially given that Davis appointed him to the state court. My guess is that Carney’s racism never came out, or that he for whatever reason was radicalized while on the bench.

    Liked by 1 person

  27. Zack's avatar

    Clarence Thomas’s entire career on SCOTUS is all about owning those he believes didn’t kiss his butt and acknowledge him for the “genius” he is, the consequences to the people it hurts be darned.
    He’s a bitter hack who IMO is the worst SCOTUS justice of the past 50 years and one of the worst what ifs ever when it comes to if only Thurgood Marshall could have held on just a little bit longer or been able to see Clinton winning, we would have been able to avoid Thomas altogether*
    * For those elsewhere who pull the Joe Biden could have stopped him garbage, I don’t like how he treated Anita Hill either but the reality is the only way Thomas wasn’t going to get onto SCOTUS was for Marshall to take back his choice to retire.
    And on the off chance his nomination HAD failed, Emilio Garza of the 5th Circuit who was the runner up was equally horrible and would have been confirmed if Thomas hadn’t.
    Sucks the luck Republicans have had on SCOTUS versus Democrats.

    Liked by 3 people

  28. keystone's avatar

    Another possible name for the Nashville based 6th Circuit seat is Jerry E. Martin. He was US Attorney during Obama’s first term, but he’s pretty young – born c. 1975.

    He’s currently Of Counsel at Robbins Geller, Rudman & Dowd. He works with their Whistleblower Practice Group.

    Liked by 1 person

  29. Gavi's avatar

    I disagree that Thomas had to be confirmed. Dems could have held the line. I know the Bork nomination was different, since he was also opposed by some Republicans, but a Dem majority senate could have rejected Thomas on their own. It was just not how the old boys’ club of yesteryear senate worked.
    Don’t paper over Joe Biden’s role. It wasn’t just that Biden could’ve treated Anita Hill better. Biden was horrible. From start to finish. My two biggest issues with Joe Biden in the early 2020 primary campaign was my fear that he’d be just another Obama, forever foolishly holding out hope for Republicans to be reasonable, and how he mistreated the whole Thomas/Hill debacle.
    I am pleased that a Clarence Thomas scenario would not happen in today’s senate, but it sucks that it was allowed to happen decades ago, for which we are still suffering the consequences.
    I can’t stand how people make Republicans out to be super-strategists on the courts. All they do is vote, don’t give an inch, and follow through. Literally nothing that Dems can’t do.

    Speaking of Emilio Garza, did the TX senators (pre-Cruz) block Obama from filling this seat in 2012? I don’t remember how it was left open for Trump to fill it with Don Willett in 2017.
    Damn, this is a reminder of how the makeup of the courts would have been different if Obama was able to fill those vacancies, even the ones that’s been open before Dems lost the senate in 2014 (cue Zack Jones on Leahy’s blue slip blunder).

    Liked by 2 people

    • star0garnet's avatar

      Not just Garza’s seat, but Carolyn King’s too. Now you’ve got me imagining a world where Trump only got one circuit vacancy in Texas to split between Willett, Ho, and Oldham. While those were more impactful, the most inexcusable was back in 2010, when Kohl and Feingold had a full year to fill Terence Evans’s seat, but didn’t even get their nominee a hearing that congress, after which Johnson held it open for six years. There were also circuit seats held open in Alabama and Kentucky throughout the entirety of the 114th congress.

      Liked by 3 people

  30. Zack's avatar

    What’s even more galling about Terence Evans’s seat is that Michael Brennan, the hack who occupies that seat wrote a long article during Obama’s presidency about why Victoria Nourse’s nomination should be denied due to the blue slip rule and how bad it would be for senate norms if it was ignored.
    No shocker that he didn’t have that same issue when it came time for him to occupy Evan’s seat.
    I remember his daughter tweeting once that her dad took senior status when he did so it wouldn’t flip.
    He didn’t count on Leahy and Democrats being idiots.
    In addition to the seats mentioned by others, there was also GA where in order for Jill Pryor’s nomination for a circuit court seat to get through, Democrats had to nominate conservative judge Julie Carnes to the other vacancy.
    As with Frank Hull and Stanley Marcus, she might have been put into her seat by a Democratic president but she was a Republican.
    Unlike Clinton where he had to nominate conservative jurists sometimes because Republicans had the senate, there was no such excuse under Obama.
    Bottom line, the 5th and 6th should be more moderate then they are while the 7th and 11th Circuits should be moderate/liberal courts but they aren’t.
    Only good thing is that at least to some degree, Democrats have learned not to be that stupid with the blue slip rule on a circuit court level, just a shame the damage that had to be done first for that to happen.

    Liked by 2 people

  31. Dequan's avatar

    Does anybody know after the votes on Becerra, Leibowitz & the position I never heard of before, what’s the likelihood the senate will be ready for budget votes by Wednesday? If not by then, I would be on the lookout for cloture motions to be sent tomorrow. At least on Melissa Damian so she can hopefully get her commission signed the same day as the other two SDFL nominees so she can be first in seniority over them, & most importantly make sure the Republican pick Leibowitz is last out of the three.

    Like

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